Kenneth Smith, from Alabama, is set to be the first person executed with nitrogen gas. Experts said concerns are being raised about whether or not it is cruel.

However, medical and legal experts told ABC News that nitrogen gas as a method for execution is untested and there’s no evidence the method will be any more humane or painless than lethal injection.

“I’ve never heard anyone say, ‘We’ve got this new method of execution. We’ve looked at it carefully. We know that this method of execution will cause a death that will not be cruel. Here’s the evidence,’” Dr. Joel Zivot, an associate professor in the department of anesthesiology at Emory University School of Medicine, told ABC News. “That’s what needed to be said. No one has said that.”

The only thing worth “knowing” about this whole situation is that the death penalty is abhorrent and should have been banned decades ago.

@groucho@lemmy.sdf.org
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I agree. And even ignoring how abhorrent it is, imagine how much money they’ve spent trying to kill this guy.

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